To increase driver, pedestrian and cyclist safety throughout the city, officials have deployed several traffic calming infrastructure measures as a part of the Safety Surge program.

While these efforts have proved fruitful, city officials and residents are asking for more to be done.

Speed humps in particular have been critically important in recent years thanks to navigation apps making every neighborhood in Boston a cut-through street and vehicles becoming bigger, faster and more dangerous. These factors combined, Boston Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin- Hodge said during a June 6 city council hearing, mean that “We’ve seen this increase in aggressive driving coming to the places we call home.”

The city has rapidly upped its deployment of these speed humps, Franklin-Hodge explained, due to refinement of the design and installation process. Between 2016 and 2022 roughly 300 speed humps were installed in the city, just about matching the 312 installed in 2023.

In 2024 alone, over 600 speed humps were installed.

“They slow drivers and in doing so dramatically reduce the risk of injury or fatality. They are quick to design and build, they are very cheap to install, and they work very well on most residential streets without creating a whole lot of other negative impacts,” Franklin-Hodge said.

In an analysis of before and after speeds on streets that had received speeds humps as part of the Better Bike Land projects, streets where the city added speed humps saw a near total elimination of speeding over 25 miles per hour.

More heavily trafficked arterial roads, however, can’t have speed humps or raised crosswalks in the city due to their frequent and necessary use by fire department and EMS vehicles.

Beyond humps, the city’s Safety Surge also looks at redeveloping intersections with curb extensions and raised cross walks to better serve pedestrians and implement changes at crossing signals. Larger safe corridor projects that target historically dangerous streets such as Cummins Highway, Congress and Sleeper Streets, Wood Avenue and Hyde Park Avenue are also in progress or being planned.

Traffic easing efforts are a part of the city’s larger Vision Zero Initiative, a program aiming to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities by 2030. That initiative tracks EMS crash data upon which infrastructure decisions can be made.

According to that data, serious pedestrian and cyclist injuries were up just after the pandemic but are down roughly 30% compared to the three years prior to the pandemic.

Franklin-Hodge added that the city is actively looking to engage with neighborhoods to ensure that humps are reaching streets that they need to and are designed with the community in mind.

Well attended by city council members, councilors provided feedback to the panel on specific streets and intersections in their districts that they were concerned about or heard concerns from constituents about.

In hearing from seniors, South End Councilor Ed Flynn asked what could be done about the crosswalk countdown times from the areas aging and disabled residents.

Franklin-Hodge said that new guidance on the signal crossing times allow for 3.5 foot per second of crossing opposed to the historical 3 foot per second, allowing for extra time to those who need it. Signal crossing times are something that can be looked at in the South End, he added, but more specifics on which intersections need added time are needed.

Residents testifying were of a more mixed opinion, with some pointing out key streets throughout the city which they believe needed to be looked at, and others suggesting that the speed humps have become excessive and cause more issues than they’re worth.